Holed up in a compound in Pakistan, Osama bin Laden was scheming how to hit the United States hard again, according to newly uncovered documents that show al-Qaida plans for derailing an American train on the upcoming 10th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks. Details of the plan emerged Thursday as some of the first intelligence was gleaned from the trove of information found in bin Laden's residence when Navy SEALs killed the al-Qaida leader and four of his associates. They took his body and scooped up computers, DVDs and documents from the compound where U.S. officials think he had been living for as long as six years.

Fortunately for the free world, osama bin laden (one of the few persons whose name I deliberately do not capitalize because his name deserves no respect) is now fish food with a bullet hole in his skull--thanks to our military's finest warriors. As a result, his plans for the destruction of yet another medium of our public transportation system is a big FAIL. What we do need to gain from this information however, is a sense of caution. Caution is something that naturally diminishes as time passes and the provoking threat continues to remain unobservable. I don't mean we should be paranoid, but, rather we should continue to support our nations leaders in their pursuit to extinguish terrorism. The information [continuing to be] uncovered from bin laden's compound is a reminder that the evil people of the world and the threats that they impart are still very real.

As a fireman for the FDNY, myself and the department get wind of things, not really specifics, but heads ups about issues. Approximately a year and a half ago we began doing intensive training on subway operations, terrorist attacks in subways, hazmat in subways, etc. We were pretty much told that the subways were being targeted, not by who or for when, but it was assumed sometime around the tenth anniversary of 9/11. Granted we were not told obl was behind it, but this information has been known for some time now by fire, police, ems, and presumably the whole chain up to the top. The scariest part about all this is that our nation and its cities are about as prepared for a terrorist attack as we were on 9/11/2001. Not saying nobody trains more, but if something like this is going to happen it is going to happen. Think about how easily you could blow up a car, go on a shooting spree, etc, and now imagine if you set about this with not only no intention of surviving it, but wanting to die for glory. Alot of people carry 9/11 and its horrors around everyday, alot more people have put it completely behind them and are content to be oblivious to the potential for another attack. There is a difference between being paranoid and being constantly alert and aware, but either is better than being oblivious to the current world we live in.

"You cannot put a rope around the neck of an idea. You cannot put an idea against a barrack wall and riddle it with bullets.You cannot confine it in the strongest prison that your slaves could ever build." - Sean O'Casey